Paper short abstract:

This presentation will evaluate the perception of Dersim as a living non-human entity, defending itself as a pantheon full of mountains, rivers and lakes. The orally transmitted religious knowledge of the region will be compared to the contemporary understanding of environmental struggles in Dersim.

Paper long abstract:

Dersim is currently the forbidden name of the sacred land of Kurdish Alevis of Turkey, a heavily and continuously oppressed enclosed ethno-religious community throughout centuries. The region is demarcated and characterised by a high Alpin mountain range, deep valleys, jungles, rivers as well as a huge dam lake, which physically separates it from the outside world, in eastern Anatolia. Not only the geographical features shape the land as a fortress, but also Kurdish Alevis’ peculiar religious belief revives it as an animated image with full of non-human entities, who are still actively protecting the jiar-u diyar (the sacred land) and guiding humans.

Kurdish Alevis are followers of Raa Haqi (The Path of the Truth) religion. The unique features of Raa Haqi separate the community from contemporary Turkey both as sociologically and spatially. Due to the continuous suppression of the Turkish state, the modern Kurdish Alevi identity submerged at the crossroad of highly traumatised and just as much politicised identity movements: Kurdishness and Alevism. Dersim has turned out a unique symbol of such politic manifests, by reflecting evidence of “purity” as an unbreakable mountainous fortress, and “legitimacy” of collective consciousness as a history of resistance against atrocities.

This presentation will evaluate the perception of Dersim as a living non-human entity, defending itself as a pantheon full of mountains, rivers and lakes. The orally transmitted religious knowledge of the region will be compared to the contemporary understanding of environmental struggles in Dersim.